New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy while celebrating his team's 21-17 win over the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Eli Manning was the MVP of the Super Bowl and justifiably so.

But he wasn’t the only candidate. You could also make a strong case for Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. That’s one of my observations in this Super Bowl wrap-up column. Here are five lingering thoughts as I prepare to board an airplane for my return to Dallas:

1. On the opening snap by the Patriots, Tuck collapsed the pocket and put a hit on Tom Brady that forced the Patriots quarterback to throw the ball away 45 yards down the middle of the field. Officials correctly ruled the pass intentional grounding and because Brady was in the end zone, awarded New York a safety. That set the tone for the game. The Giants would be in Brady’s head from the start.

Brady opened the game 20-of-22 for 201 yards and two touchdowns to stake the Patriots at a 17-9 lead. But on New England’s next possession with six minutes left in the third quarter, Tuck crushed Brady for a sack, pinching his left shoulder into the turf. Doctors administered to him after the series, which turned out to be a three-and-out. Brady went 7-of-18 passing the rest of the way for 95 yards.

Brady was high on a pass to wide open Wes Welker and threw another behind Deion Branch on a crossing route on consecutive plays in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. Either play would have produced a first down. Instead, the Patriots had to punt the ball away, giving the Giants possession for their game-winning drive. A Brady throwing in rhythm without concern for the rush completes both of those passes. Like I said, the New York front four was in his head.

Tuck collected his second sack on New England’s final possession of the game -- a 7-yarder that put the Patriots in a fourth-and-17 from their own 13 and forced them to focus on a first down, rather a touchdown, as the final seconds were ticking off the clock.

Tuck deserves more than a handshake for his fine performance.

2. Pursued out of the country to Bolivia, Butch Cassidy asked the Sundance Kid of the posse of lawmen tracking them, “Who are those guys?”

That must have been how Tom Brady felt midway through the third quarter. He played as perfect a 35 minutes as a quarterback can play, completing 20 of his 22 passes. His two incompletions were batted down at the line of scrimmage by Jason Pierre-Paul or they might have been completions as well to tight end Aaron Hernandez on short crossing routes.

But for all 201 of his yards and two TD passes, the Patriots couldn’t shake the New York Giants, building only a 17-9 lead. The game unraveled on Brady and the Patriots from there -- just as it did on Butch and Sundance in Bolivia.

3. Speaking of quarterbacks, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a quarterback routinely throw passes into tighter windows than Manning in this Super Bowl. That 38-yard, game-changing, fourth-quarter bomb to Mario Manningham was probably the most perfectly thrown ball I’ve seen all season as Manning framed his receiver between two defenders and the sideline. If Manningham wasn’t going to catch it, no one was. Manning’s touchdown pass to Victor Cruz in the first quarter was barely inches over the shoulder of linebacker Jerod Mayo, who undoubtedly heard it whistle as it went by. Yes, Eli Manning is an elite quarterback, a franchise quarterback.

4. The 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl was all that North Texas had hoped its 2011 game would be but wasn’t because of a nasty cold snap, taxi strike and stadium seating debacle. I’d rank the Indianapolis game among my top three Super Bowl experiences of all time along with the 1992 game in Minneapolis and the 2006 game in Detroit. All three were cold-weather cities that embraced who and what they are and compensated by dazzling all with their efficiency and hospitality. Indianapolis benefited this time from unseasonably warm weather as well. Indy earned itself the right to host another Super Bowl at some point down the road.

5. I would have liked to have seen how the game played out had New England’s Pro Bowl tight end Rob Gronkowski been healthy. He was Brady’s big-play receiver all season with his league-leading 17 touchdown receptions.

But a high ankle sprain suffered in the AFC title game minimized him in the Super Bowl. Brady threw only one of his first 22 passes to Gronkowski and just three of his 41 total passes to him. The Giants were able to get away covering him with a linebacker most of the game and Gronkowski wound up catching just two passes for 26 yards.

In his last healthy game – the AFC semifinals against Baltimore -- Gronkowski caught 10 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns. His injury, needless to say, played a huge role in the game’s outcome.

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About Rick Gosselin

MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB:
Sitting at the hotel bar with Jerry Jones that night in Orlando, Fla., in March 1994 when he decided he'd had enough of Jimmy Johnson as coach of the Cowboys.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:I played hockey for a media all-star team in Detroit and once scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings Old-Timers in a charity game at Olympia. As a high school player, I once scored a hat trick in a game at the Olympia. Love those "Original Six" buildings.

IF I HAD TWO SPARE HOURS, I WOULD:Take a golf lesson and learn how to hit a driver.

MOST MEMORABLE SPORTING EVENT I'VE COVERED:Impossible to pick just one, so I'll give you five, in no particular order:
- 1, My first Super Bowl - X between the Cowboys and Steelers.
- 2, 1983 NCAA basketball championship game between North Carolina State and Houston.
- 3, 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska.
- 4, 1971 baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, where all the future Hall of Famers homered and Reggie Jackson banged one off the light tower.
- 5, Speedskater Bonnie Blair's world-record sprints at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
- Honorable mention: Troy Aikman's first college start as a freshman at Oklahoma against Kansas. (He lost.)

Hometown: Detroit

Education: Graduated from Michigan State in 1972, then spent two years working news for United Press International in Detroit, two years working for UPI sports in New York, nine years working as UPI's Midlands sports editor in Kansas City, four years as Chiefs/NFL beat reporter for the Kansas City Star, two years as Cowboys writer for The Dallas Morning News and 12 years as the NFL writer for The News.